Mount Madonna School walk-a-thon raises more than $28,000

WATSONVILLE -- Cheered on by a gobbling wild turkey nearby, 14-year-old Ruby Bracher lined up Saturday with her classmates for a 5-kilometer hike through the dense redwoods and lush ferns high atop the Santa Cruz Mountains.

For eight years now, the Summit for the Planet walk-a-thon has become a crucial fundraiser for the private Mount Madonna School. But the Earth Day-themed event is also plenty of fun for its 200-or-so students, family members and friends, who celebrated the event with songs, food and a "trash fashion" show where the kids wore clothes they designed from recyclable materials such as egg crates and plastic picnic table covers.

By getting donors to pledge money for the hike, Ruby and the other students last year raised $26,000 for the 355-acre Watsonville campus on Summit Road. So far this year, they've raised $28,500, and "that's not counting money that was to be turned in today," said Pamela Blunden, the walk-a-thon's coordinator.

Annual tuition at the private school, which was established in 1979 and teaches children 3-18, ranges from $12,405 for the youngest students to $18,840 for those in grades 11 and 12. Even so, Madonna officials say they need additional money for its various activities.

The amount raised Saturday will primarily be used for environmental-related educational programs, such as the annual event where 10th-graders study biology on Catalina Island in Southern California, Blunden said.

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Having an eco-friendly fundraiser -- instead of asking the kids to sell cookies or engage in some other activity -- appeals to Ruby's dad, Charles Bracher.

"I think it's a pretty nice way to do it," he said, noting that Ruby raised about $100, mostly from relatives.

Several nonprofit environmental organizations also participated in the event and used the occasion to raise money for themselves. They included the Bat Conservancy of Coastal California, the Wildlife Education Rehabilitation Center, the Bay Area Amphibian and Reptile Society, the Sulphur Creek Nature Center, Mt. Madonna Stables and Save Our Shores.

Tucked away in a remote area near Mount Madonna County Park, the school draws students from surrounding communities, and it's not unusual for parents to drive 20 minutes up steep, winding roads to get there. But its close-knit atmosphere is hard to beat, said Dave Zollo, a Corralitos landscaper whose daughter Tabitha is in sixth grade.

"I like how the kids interact," he said, noting that many of the older students eagerly mentor their younger classmates. "It's a small school. It's almost like a family."